Around 2007, when Canada was heading toward IFRS adoption, I helped edit a book comparing then-Canadian GAAP to the international standards, and I recall the lead author inserting a sentence into the preface to the effect that although the United States hadn’t yet moved to adopt IFRS, the climate was such that it wouldn’t be…

A cringingly awful (but at least provocative) column by Gus Carlson in The Globe and Mail posits that “The new hate for Elon Musk is childish and hypocritical.” The skepticism isn’t so new on this blog actually. But anyway, Carlson’s article surveys some of the recent anti-Tesla activism, and goes on: But the anti-Musk outrage,…

It’s possible to appreciate the broad purpose of IAS 38 Intangible Assets while still finding it inherently rather peculiar… For example, anyone who’s had to spend time puzzling over how an amount of purchase price consideration might be allocated between, say, customer lists, marketing rights, patents and/or goodwill will appreciate that such exercises are often…

It’s darkly amusing (sort of) that the highest-profile recent example of deficient accounting-related record-keeping comes from the ever-wondrous heart of American democracy, as summarized here by the New York Times: The sloppiness is so pervasive and reckless that it’s plain no serious effort was made to verify the numbers before posting them, that the DOGE…

In a recent edition of his Inside Standard Setting, Armand Capisciolto, Chair of Canada’s Accounting Standards Board, pulled off one of the all-time memorable segues: Well, of course it does. You may recall that the exposure draft focuses in particular on how an entity determines under IAS 37 that it has a present obligation (legal…

The US SEC recently issued a “Staff Statement on Meme Coins,” Let’s look at some extracts: As the New York Times pointed out, one of the more high-profile meme coins to date was issued by Trump during his pre-inaugural “festivities” in January, called $Trump, which “spurred controversy because it swung wildly in value and generated hefty…

Well, it’s pretty obvious that it’s effectively all over already for the ISSB and its standards so, thanks, that’s all I wanted to say today. Oh wait, I’m picking up some interference… To be honest, “the train has left the station” strikes me as one of the dumber tools in the arsenal of rhetoric: just…

Even when one doesn’t care about the specific issues being discussed, the IFRS comment letter process is an informative case study in the diversity of human thought… Take for example the recent exposure draft on the equity method of accounting, intended to “provide preparers with solutions to long-standing application difficulties.” I already commented that I…

My friend Walter Ross recently submitted a comment on my public interest-themed posts and I’m going to post it here to make sure it’s appropriately visible (to the extent that being on this blog is a form of visibility): Wow! Well, as he said at the outset, the goal is to kick-start a conversation, so…

The five commissioners of the US Securities and Exchange Commission recently voted on the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s proposed budget for 2025. The proposed budget was around $400 million, a 4% increase from 2024, with no increase in headcount, and was approved by a 3 to 2 vote. As is their way, each of…